John Cooper was named the 15th men's basketball head coach at Tennessee State University on March 27, 2009.

In just two seasons at TSU, Cooper increased his team's overall win total by five games, while helping the Tigers reach double-digit victories in the OVC for the first time since the 2007-08 campaign.

Cooper came to Tennessee State from Auburn University where he served as associate head men's basketball coach with Jeff Lebo.

Cooper has over 15 years of basketball coaching experience having coached at Oregon, South Carolina and Fayetteville State. This is Cooper's first post as a head coach.

A native of Kansas City, Mo., Cooper played collegiately at Wichita State, under Eddie Fogler. He led the Shockers in scoring and rebounding during his junior and senior seasons. Cooper a team captain his final two years and a Rhodes Scholar candidate in his senior year.

Cooper spent five years at Auburn (2004-2009) and played a vital role in the revitalization of the Auburn basketball program with the Tigers recording their first winning season in four years (2003). That season, Auburn posted a 24-12 record and advanced to the quarterfinals of the NIT Tournament.

Prior to his arrival at Auburn, Cooper spent two seasons at Oregon where he helped the Ducks to a 41-23 mark. Oregon went 23-10 with a NCAA Tournament appearance in 2002-03 and had an 18-13 record in 2003-04, losing in the NIT semifinals.

He coached a trio of NBA stars in PAC-10 Player of the Year Luke Ridnour of the NBA's Seattle Supersonics, the Phoenix Suns' Aaron Brooks and Luke Jackson, formerly of the Cleveland Cavaliers.

He spent six years as an assistant at South Carolina under his former college coach Eddie Fogler, from 1995-2001, helping lead the Gamecocks to the SEC Championship with a 24-8 record in 1996-97.

Before his stint at South Carolina, Cooper spent two seasons as an assistant to Rick Duckett at Division II Fayetteville (NC) State in the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association. The Broncos went 18-10 in 1993-94 and 15-10 in 1994-95.